The Political Economy of Football V2

Losses at Northampton Town increased to nearly £3m in 2024/25 despite record revenues.   The playing budget was up by 20 per cent:  https://www.footballtradedirectory.com/northampton-town-post-2995m-loss-despite-record? Northampton is a 'stand alone' league club in its county (since the collapse of Rushden & Diamonds).  Nevertheless, its finances illustrate the challenges faced by lower league EFL clubs.

Relegation threatened Blackpool have reported increased losses compared with the preceding season:  https://www.footballtradedirectory.com/blackpool-report-43m-loss-as-league-one-clubs-face? Auditors have issued a formal warning about the club's ability to continue as a going concern linked to one of the directors facing criminal proceedings in Hong Kong:  https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/25985039.blackpool-fc-finances-losses-deepen-owner-trial/

'Crazy' soaring wages in League One have seen Northampton's losses increase from £1m to £2.5m a year:  https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/sport/football/cobblers-open-to-more-investment-to-stay-competitive-after-crazy-rise-in-league-one-wages-5421603 The club is open to more investment, but the chairman is proud of what they have achieved over the last ten years in terms of creating a stable club:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cnv2qz98mz0o

Although things have taken a turn for the worse on the pitch, Luton Town’s finances look in pretty good shape. This was referenced by chief executive Gary Sweet after the double relegation, “The backdrop of our custodianship of the football club is financial stability. It’s an absolute cornerstone. The club was unstable, it’s more stable now than it probably ever has been financially and structurally.” The club’s sustainable approach resulted in limited expenditure on the squad after promotion to the top flight. Instead, the club invested much of their windfall gains in building a new stadium. While such investment will be beneficial to Luton’s long-term prospects, it is clear that this strategy had an adverse impact on their ability to compete in the Premier League.   Indeed, the directors admitted that they had probably under-spent in the transfer market, especially in the January window, as they attempted to stay up: “In hindsight the club might have reinforced more.” It...

Only a couple of clubs broke even in League One in 23/24 reveals football finance guru Kieran Maguire . Legacy losses from previous years take total to almost £1 billion Average revenue was £8.4m down £2.2m.   Average wages £8.3m down £400k.   Wages 97% of revenue up 14%.   Average weekly wage £3,700.   Average losses were £8.9m up £4.6m. Total accumulated losses of all 24 clubs £998m up £26m.   Total player purchases £12.8m down £2.5m. Total cost of squads, £25.1m up £9m.   Total borrowings £343m up £9m.

Reading fans are over the moon after the takeover of their club was completed:  https://thetilehurstend.sbnation.com/2025/5/15/24430246/after-500-days-of-torture-reading-fc-fans-can-breathe-again-royals The English Football League, who are responsible for a lot of the delays, issued a brief statement:  https://www.efl.com/news/2025/may/14/reading-football-club-under-new-ownership/

American consortium GSG LOFC Limited, led by New York businessman David Gandler, has completed a takeover of English League One club Leyton Orient. The group has acquired 100 per cent of the east London club from its previous owner Eagle Investments 2017 Limited. Gandler, who is also the co-founder and CEO of streaming service FuboTV, will be the majority shareholder, owning 78.55% of the club. “Our aim is to become a Championship club in the future,” he said. “We hope to achieve this by making sensible investments in our playing squad and off-pitch projects. Whilst we are very ambitious, we will not spend recklessly and will never make decisions that could jeopardise the future of this special football club.

Football finance guru Kieran Maguire reports the 2022/23 financial figures for Peterborough United.    Revenue was £10.1m down 4%.  Wages £7.3m down 5%. Wages £72 for every £100 revenue, a healthy ratio. Highest paid director £182k down 18%.  Underlying loss £5.5m down 2%. Player sale profits £4.1m up 25%.  Pre tax loss £2.3m down34%.  Losses over the years £21.5m. Player purchases £1.1m.  Player sales £4.2m.  Total transfer fees for squad £5.2m. Borrowings £19.8m. The current season has been a disappointment on the pitch as the club was expected to be in contention for promotion. AI overview:  Peterborough United Football Club's finances have seen a period of significant challenges and recent stability, with the club facing debt issues and a potential administration risk, but now having a long-term loan settlement agreement with OKR Financial .  

An American consortium is close to sealing a £18m bid for Leyton Orient:  https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/mar/27/us-based-consortium-close-to-ambitious-18m-takeover-of-leyton-orient American investors have become increasingly interested in franchises in lower division clubs seeing them as offering better value.   Orient are still in contention for a play off place this season.

Football finance guru Kieran Maguire reports on the accounts of Burton Albion.  Revenue at the Brewers was  £6.38m up 4%. Wages at £5.36m grew faster up 11%. Wages were £84 for every £100  of revenue up £5, a figure above recommended levels.  Underlying loss was £1.70m up 54% Player sale profits £0.22m, player purchases £0.31m .  Squad cost £0.56m.  Borrowings in year £1.5m. Total profit over the years £2.11m. Maguire comments: ‘Burton remain one of the very few clubs to be profitable over time, but at the current rate this is likely to only last a couple more years.’

A murky winter's day at Reading's old Elm Park ground.   The club's future is darker now. The EFL’s disqualification of Reading’s deeply unpopular owner, Dai Yongge, has triggered a deadline: he must sell the club by April 5 or risk leaving their fate in the hands of the league. If he fails to show sufficient progress toward a sale, the EFL could declare Reading unable to fulfil their fixtures — expelling them from the league and plunging League One into chaos. A deal is believed to be on the table, with the American investor Robert Platek in an exclusivity period. Platek is also the present owner of the Portuguese side Casa Pia. But Reading fans have been here before — Platek is the fifth prospective buyer to enter exclusivity since Yongge put the club up for sale more than 500 days ago. Speaking before Saturday’s match, the football finance guru Kieran Maguire outlined the stark reality. Yongge was disqualified after failing to pay debts in China, making him an “unr...

Reading fans fear for the future of their club.  Unpopular owner Dai Yongge was actually disqualified in February, but the disqualification was only disclosed in court today as the EFL did not wish to discourage slow moving sale proceedings.  The owner has until April 5th to divest himself of the club or it may be thrown out of the EFL:  https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/mar/21/reading-dai-yongge-thrown-out-efl-sell-club

Until I read a long investigative report in this weekend's Financial Times magazine, I wasn't up to speed about recent events at Blackpool Football Club.   I was familiar with how Tangerine fans had suffered under the Oyston regime, but I assumed that things had settled down even if performances on the pitch had been a bit up and down. What I didn't know was that the current owner, Simon Sadler, was facing criminal charges for insider trading in Hong Kong and might put up the club for sale. Sadler is the typical 'local boy made good' from humble origins who bought the club and stadium for £8.2m, partly because he felt guilty about leaving home and making so much money.   He set up 'a hedge fund in Hong Kong and established himself as one of the most powerful players in a niche of global finance.' The article is written by the Pink Un's Asia financial correspondent and it is clear that she is not familiar with the world of football, despite some local col...

Swindon Town are planning to boost their commercial revenue as part of their campaign for promotion to League One:  https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/sport/24930164.swindon-town-look-events-boost-push-league-one/

A three-way fight for promotion between a New York hedge fund, a Kazakh billionaire and two Hollywood actors has fuelled a record transfer splurge in English football’s third tier, as wealthy team owners look to get ahead of tighter financial rules taking effect this summer. The 24 clubs in League One have spent almost €56mn this season — more than the total for the past eight seasons combined — according to figures from data website Transfermarkt. Table-topping Birmingham City, owned since 2023 by US hedge fund Knighthead Capital, has spent more than €35mn, equivalent to about 63 per cent of the league’s total spend. Birmingham City smashed the League One transfer record last summer to sign striker Jay Stansfield from Fulham for €17.8mn. The club is also responsible for the next two most expensive signings in the division: Christoph Klarer at €4.15mn and Willum Thór Willumsson for €4mn. Huddersfield Town, owned by US businessman Kevin Nagle, spent more than €3mn on forward Joe Tay...

Losses at Lincoln City have increased, but fans have been assured that the club is in good financial health.  Football finance guru Kieran Maguire says that the losses of just under £3m are 'mid-table' for a League One club, e.g., Charlton are thought to be losing £9m a year:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cn571e5n6klo

The US owner of Birmingham City football club has said the UK can unlock a wave of inbound investment “incredibly quickly” if the government makes tangible progress on its pledge to speed up planning approvals. Tom Wagner, co-founder of Knighthead Capital, told the Financial Times that Britain’s record of under-investment and slow growth could be turned around if Labour made good on its vow to remove obstacles to development.   “There are lots of projects that we are looking at in the UK that we’d love to pursue if the process can be made easier,” he said. “And we’re not the only ones. If things change by just a small amount, there’ll be a lot of capital inflow and a lot of excess growth.” Knighthead has acquired more than 60 acres of land around Birmingham City’s stadium since taking control of the League One team in 2023. The New York-based hedge fund plans to build a new 60,000-seat venue as part of a large £3bn regeneration project involving housing, retail and entertainme...

Wrexham and Birmingham drew 1-1 yesterday.  It wasn’t always a glamour tie (and some Blues fans don’t like being linked with Wrexham by some rival fans as a plastic club). The Hollywood derby, a phrase coined ahead of the first meeting at St Andrew’s in September, sees one club owned by two high-profile actors face another whose board boasts an all-time NFL great. This is part of a wider trend that saw 2025 kick off with no less than 23 of the 72 EFL clubs in North American hands, almost a third. As if to underline this increasing globalisation of a competition now into its 137th year, Thursday’s match was broadcast live on both sides of the Atlantic as part of CBS’ new four-year deal to show games in the Championship, League One and League Two. Cosm’s immersive entertainment centres in Los Angeles and Dallas will also be screening Wrexham vs Birmingham live. Quite the contrast from that last meeting in 1994, when only 6,002 were in attendance as the two tea...

Stockport County’s ground is the only one I have visited with both my EFL club (Charlton) and my non-league club (Leamington), the latter in the National League North. Simon Wilson was City Football Group’s (CFG) strategy and performance manager in a former life but, after moving into consultancy work for clubs around Europe, he was introduced to local property magnate Mark Stott. A City season ticket holder, Stott wanted to invest in a football club and commissioned Wilson with the task of assessing the market. Despite Stockport only just picking themselves up from their lowest ebb — finally earning promotion from the National League North in 2019 — Wilson recommended them. It had that nice combination of being almost like a start-up, but with loads of history and loads of potential,” Wilson says. “There weren't massive skeletons in the closet, no big costs that you couldn't deal with.” The years of underachievement, which had seen the end of the club’s professional st...

Charlton supremo Charlie Methven welcomes the new expenditure controls in Leagues One and Two, pointing out that the prospect of such controls was one reason Global Football Partners bought the ailing club:  https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/sport/charlton-athletic-hierarchy-supportive-of-new-spending-controls-that-kick-in-next-season/